ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Motivational Climate in Sports and Physical EducationView all 8 articles
Motivational climate, self-determination, burnout, and mindfulness in adolescent football players from a professional academy in virtual settings
Provisionally accepted
Mario Reyes - Bossio1*
Natalia Veran-Casanova2
Franco Ascenzo-Bravo de Rueda2
Andy Sánchez-Villena3Mariel Delgado-Campusano1
Veronica Tutte-Vallarino4
Regina Brandão5- 1Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas, Lima, Peru
- 2Sociedad Iberoamericana de Psicología del Deporte, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
- 3Universidad Señor de Sipán, Chiclayo, Peru
- 4Universidad Catolica del Uruguay, Montevideo, Uruguay
- 5Universidade Sao Judas Tadeu, São Paulo, Brazil
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Abstract Background: The COVID-19 pandemic shifted sports training to virtual formats, impacting athletes' motivation, well-being, and mental health. In this context, motivational climate, self-determined motivation, mindfulness, and burnout are key factors for understanding adolescents' psychological adjustment in football. Methods: This study employed a cross-sectional design, with all variables collected at a single time point during mandatory virtual training. This cross-sectional study surveyed 154 adolescent football players (M = 15.9 years) from a Peruvian professional academy during mandatory virtual training. Participants completed the EDMCQ-C, SMS, MAAS-5, and ABQ. A psychological network analysis was performed in R using non-regularized partial correlations and bootstrapped stability estimates. Results: An empowering climate was positively associated with intrinsic motivation and mindfulness, whereas a disempowering climate was linked to extrinsic motivation and burnout. Extrinsic motivation emerged as the most central node in the network, and mindfulness functioned as a bridging node that buffered the spread of demotivation toward exhaustion. The model showed adequate stability (CS = .44). Conclusions: Empowering motivational climates and mindfulness protect adolescents' psychological well-being, whereas controlling coaching and extrinsic motivation heighten the risk of burnout. These findings support incorporating autonomy-supportive coaching and brief mindfulness practices in youth sport training and coach education programs.
Keywords: Adolescent football (soccer), Athlete burnout, Empowering and disempowering coaching, mindfulness, Motivational climate, Network analysis, Self-determined motivation, Virtual training
Received: 25 Oct 2025; Accepted: 11 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Reyes - Bossio, Veran-Casanova, Ascenzo-Bravo de Rueda, Sánchez-Villena, Delgado-Campusano, Tutte-Vallarino and Brandão. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mario Reyes - Bossio
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